Information Archive 2008 - January

Eat It…It’s Good for You!

At least the USDA thinks so, even though they’re checking to see whether distillers grains cause E.coli. Distillers grains are used by some cattlemen to fatten their animals, particularly now with the high cost of corn. Two things are interesting about this test: first, that they’re going to compare the results to cows fed an all-corn diet. And second, that “regardless of the results, the government is not planning to restrict the use of distillers grains”.

More E. coli anyone?

Meatingplace.com Jan. 29 Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Neb., are studying whether feeding cattle distillers grains, a byproduct of ethanol production, increases E. coli levels.

The 300 cattle in the study are on a diet of 40 percent distillers grains, the Des Moines Register reported. They are being tested for E. coli monthly until they reach their full weight this spring, and their E. coli levels will be compared with cattle on an all-corn diet.

Research from Kansas State University has already linked distillers grains with E. coli, demonstrating a twofold increase in E. coli levels in cattle fed the product compared with animals that ate corn exclusively. Researchers at the University of Nebraska found that cattle fed 40 percent to 50 percent distillers grains showed increased rates of E. coli, although cattle fed a diet of 10 percent to 30 percent of the product actually had lower E. coli levels than those on an all-corn diet.

Results of the USDA study are expected later this year. USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety Richard Raymond told the Register last week that regardless of the results, the government is not planning to restrict the use of distillers grains, but would instead leave decisions to the industry.

At the cost of sounding like the proverbial broken record, ED points out that once again the Feds aren’t about to test their pet cows against grass fed cattle. Might be kind of embarrassing to be forced to report that cows fed a diet of 100% grass have never developed a case of E. coli!

 

Pictures in the News…

…this little calf (well not so little for 3 months when the picture was taken) must be wondering why nobody warned him there’d be days like this. Still, he continued to thrive and like the rest of the herd, went into the snow to find the stockpiled grass.

…not far away, there was a recip mother and her embryo calf underscoring the point that Gearld made recently about the important contribution a recipient makes. Mom is a Senepol and her offspring is already half her size at just 3 months! The mating was a Rotokawa 93 and Thistle Hill cow.

…and speaking of Rotokawa, are we about to see purebred Rotokawa oysters? New Zealand breeder Ken McDowall was introduced to the challenge of raising oysters on the Chesapeake Bay when he visited recently. If there’s any chop on the water, it’s not only your hands that get chapped. Ken has decided to stick with his Rotokawa.

NAIS As Campaign Issue…

…well not quite. The Fed’s cherished National Animal Identification System apparently is a little too “technical” for the presidential campaign. But one of the candidates actually has taken a stand on the issue and he’s forcefully behind the NADA position. This is not an endorsement but still….(click here). Thanks to Steve Campbell.

Steve Campbell has been a frequent contributor to this website, everything from Info to a Profile of his Trinity 3 C Ranch to spelling corrections. Now in his first Guest Blog, “Is Anybody Listening”, he worries that as a rancher dedicated to producing the highest quality meat he’s fighting a losing battle against his own government. (click here)

It’s In the Book…

…a new member of NADA, Pam Trent of Mineola, Texas, was leafing through the old family Bible with her grandson not long ago when out dropped a part of a page from a book published in the mid-19th century! Someone back then had thought enough about a passage on Devon to clip it out and save it. So Pam offers this Divine Inspiration.

It is interesting to see what the book has to say about the Devon. On page 385, it says, " The Devons make, all things considered, the best cattle for the farmer. They are not large enough for the heaviest work, but no ox of his size equals him in strength, activity, perseverance, or willingness."
It goes on to say, "The Devon is naturally medium as a dairy cow, giving a fair quantity of very rich milk.-----As a beef animal the Devon is in the first class. He fats readily, has compact bones, and therefore a small amount of waste, and the flesh is of the finest quality, and well laid on. We recommend the Devons for workers, and for beef, but not for the dairy."

Pam did a little research on Google and found that the clipped page comes from a book entitled “How to Make the Farm Pay – 1869” by Charles Dickerman, identified as a member of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. She even was able to track down an intact copy of the book and found this quote:

"Devon Cows--Butter Making--We have said elsewhere that the Devon are not a dairy breed, but that they sometimes make excellent dairy stock is proved by the following: D.H. Prest, of Ontario, having seen Mrs. Cragg's statement about her butter product in the "Rural," sends a communication giving his experience in butter making. Four years ago, having purchased a Devon cow, it was resolved to test the value of the purchase by keeping an account of the butter made from her milk. The first week's cream was churned by itself and produced fourteen pounds of butter. The milk stood from morning till night and from night till morning, and fed to the calf before it got sour. That calf, when a heifer two years old, was milked separately like the dam, and produced in a week ten and three-quarter pounds of excellent butter. Another heifer, from the same mother as the last, came in also at two years old, and in the second week in March produced ten and eleven-sixteenths pounds of butter, which was sold at forty-seven cents per pound. Our correspondent adds: I was not trying to beat any one, but only testing the character of the Devon cows as compared with others I had on hand. I think I could better this by a good many pounds should I make it my study."

ED couldn’t help but hear echoes of NADA president Gearld Fry’s past commentaries on everything from butterfat and the lost art of animal husbandry in those passages. He certainly is right that we have at least as much to learn from the past as in the Ag Science research labs!

And watch for a Profile of John and Pam Trent’s Lindley Organic Farm and Ranch very soon.

Words to Live By…

The mother of a friend was buried the other day at the age of 101. At the conclusion of his eulogy, the pastor reeled off the words this woman lived by:

· Worship God
· Seek Beauty
· Give Service
· Pursue Knowledge
· Be Trustworthy
· Hold on to Health
· Glorify Work
· Be Happy

Not bad guide posts. She held to them from the time she was a teenage girl. ED thought it was original but women of a certain age tell me this is the credo of the Camp Fire Girls. You don’t get this kind of moral guidance watching television or playing video games.

Fry Condemns Government Registry Plan…

Be sure to read NADA President Gearld Fry’s attack on the Feds plan to force breed associations to support the National Animal Identification System. It’s a strongly-worded condemnation that was run by the Board and is more than justified by this power-grab by Washington. If USDA has its way, a showdown on this is just two months away! Read the Fry statement by clicking here.

This is definitely an issue you should be talking to your Congressman about even though most of them see nothing wrong with a further concentration of Ag power in just a few hands. On that score also be sure to read a column by Doreen Hannes, who

speculates that power, pure and simple, is what is really behind this NAIS scheme. What’s going on here, she writes, is an attempt to control our population by controlling our food. Read the whole thing by (clicking here) (thanx to Steve Campbell)

What’s Wrong with our Food?

…quite a lot, according to Brian Snyder, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture (PASA). Snyder takes on the industrial ag canard that we have “the safest, cheapest, most abundant food supply in the world” in an article he wrote for PASA’s publication “Passages”. (click here)

Brian’s column echoes something ED was read in Michael Pollan’s new book, “In Defense of Food”. Pollan offers a basic guideline for a housewife wondering about the quality of their food: avoid anything that makes a health claim on the box! Think about it! It’s generally the processed foods with the engineered nutrients that are the offenders.

Another way of protecting yourself: stay out of the middle aisles of the supermarkets!

Others have offered another simple guideline: don’t eat anything your grandmother didn’t eat!

And before we leave PASA, permit a commercial. One of the “tracks” at PASA’s annual conference in State College, Pennsylvania next month is basically all-NADA all-the-time. The subject of grass fed beef gets a day-long treatment from president Gearld Fry, and board members Ridge Shinn and Don Minto and member Mike Debach of All-Natural Beef in Troy, Pennsylvania. We need to admit, though, that another speaker is Grass Guru Jim Gerrish, who was featured at our recent annual meeting.

The program costs just $90 and the day is February 7th. It’s not too late to register, get authoritative information, and talk with some Devon people. Here’s the website with the information: (click here)